Its very unlikely the setup will ask for details of the old product key. The differences between "upgrade" and "full" versions tend more to relate to whether its possible to run as an inplace upgrade from within windows. I've yet to have a clean Win7 install fail for this reason, even with an upgrade disk
However if it does, theres a simple way round it
Do a clean installation, booting from the disk but do a trial setup and don't put a product key in. This gives a 30-day trial
Then when windows is installed, do a so-called "inplace upgrade" by running setup from within windows - this time it will recognise the first installation as being valid, and will ask for a product key
It will put the windows folder from the first installation into a hidden folder called windows.old - which you can delete safely
As for the software for students licence, anyone can buy that as long as they have a qualifying UK academic e-mail address - something in the @***.ac.uk domain
However if you want to save some cash, theres nothing to stop you downloading a Windows Vista ISO image from Digital River or elsewhere and using that with the product key sticker. Note the key will work with both 32-bit and 64-bit versions: the keys are interchangeable
Also note that with Vista one setup DVD will do all versions: the version you get depends on the key used irrespective of the label. ie any 32-bit disk will install any 32-bit version, any 64-bit disk any 64-bit version
Last edited by Milo Minderbinder; 30th May 2012 at 20:31.